A new study suggests that free apps for Android handsets might entail some risks related to security and privacy of user information. This report which could make some ponder over their software downloads from Google Play, comes from a group of researchers at the North Carolina State University.
The team studied nearly 100,000 applications available in the virtual marketplace for Android apps as part of this research. The findings revealed that more than half the number was equipped with ad-libraries within the application. Of these, 297 software options were apparently designed to download code from servers and run it. This poses security threats as the code may be meant for any unknown action.
“To limit exposure to these risks, we need to isolate ad libraries from apps and make sure they don’t have the same permissions,” said Dr. Xuxian Jiang, an assistant professor of computer science at NC State. “The current model of directly embedding ad libraries in mobile apps does make it convenient for app developers, but also fundamentally introduces privacy and security risks. The best solution would be for Google, Apple and other mobile platform providers to take the lead in providing effective ad-isolation mechanisms.”
Primarily used by free apps to generate revenues, these ad libraries can be provided by Google or other third parties. While granting permission to the concerned applications, users might permit these advertisements by default, without realizing it. Furthermore, the codes can also track customer location via GPS to enable more specific and relevant ads.
The paper regarding security and privacy concerns with free Android apps will be presented at the 5th ACM Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks in Tucson, on April 17.